Candidates run final lap as Ugandans prepare for polls

The week of reckoning is here. In four days, Ugandans go to polls to decide whether they want change or more of the same, as former prime minister Amama Mbabazi would say.

For those who need reminders on who the candidates are because they have been dwelling too much on who is flying their family out, we have a cocktail of nine men and one woman trying to remove a seemingly nailed-to-the-seat incumbent Yoweri Museveni.

They are Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform, Patrick Amuriat of the Forum for Democratic Change, Norbert Mao of Democratic Party and Gen Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation.

Others are Independents John Katumba, Willy Mayambala, Fred Mwesigye, Henry Tumukunde, Joseph Kabuleta and Nancy Kalembe.
So on Thursday, some 17.6 million voters are expected to throng the 34,344 polling stations across the 146 districts to cast their vote. 

But Bobi Wine’s children will not be among the voters. He has already evacuated them to safety abroad, explaining that his children were being targeted for kidnap and possible harm by the regime.

As expected, this has riled a section of Ugandans who quickly compared Bobi Wine to Milton Obote, Idi Amin, Museveni, Dr Kizza Besigye, all of whom had their child(ren) safely abroad. So is Bobi Wine any different? His supporters insist so. In fact, they swear by it.

But what they cannot defend is that which can only be explained by the Alur when say, “if a lizard is to put on a trouser, it must first account for its own tail.” Bobi Wine jumped into the hot frying pan of politics, but can he get his trouser past his tail to belt it at his waist?

So will he be like Obote, Amin and Museveni? 
Not so fast. At least not in an “error” when even doves are taking their time to fly.

Religious leaders who have been so dramatic this election season, freewheeling and moonwalking on issues, this week decided to pray for peace and like the biblical thing when a dove is released, they, too, did it.

The trouble is that either the whole thing is a fiction or the doves do not respond when just any other men in frock release them. They landed right at their feet and proceeded to feed at whatever was there. At least they retained a degree of respect to the men of God and avoided mating right there.

However, Justice Simon Byabakama, the man tasked with overseeing the most weird election in our history, has declared that no one will be allowed to pull off the dove stunts of refusing to fly from a polling station after voting. Vote and go home... fly away peacefully, Byabakama says.

He is a judge and knows the law better than Donald Trump knows Twitter but he does not care that the right to stay at polling station until voting process is complete is enshrined in our Constitution and the electoral laws he superintends.

Byabakama has also ordered that no one, including journalists, will be allowed to take photos in and around polling stations. At least the much-vilified Dr Badru Kiggundu only banned cameras in the polling booths!

So those ranting over Bobi Wine’s decision to send his children away, what would they be doing in a Byabakama election when they cannot dovetail at polling stations to defend their father’s votes?

What is best for now is to reflect on what former US President Barack Obama said during the 2008 campaigns. Confronted with the news of Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter’s pregnancy, Obama waved aside the ‘scandal’ in his rival’s running mate camp, saying “I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics.”

Anyway, Byabakama’s team also declared that there will be no place for parallel Opposition voter tally centres after Bobi Wine announced an app for the job. Months ago, NRM announced they would have their own independent tally centre. EC didn’t hear of it. They only see the dove when it is in the hands of the Opposition.

But it wasn’t all negative for Byabakama – he started dispatching election materials on Wednesday. By tomorrow, the 146 districts are expected to be fully covered.

In the meantime, the campaigns have picked up more heat. Bobi Wine’s minders were charged but the ones closest to him like Eddie Mutwe remain in detention until after elections.

Then the new minders were also rounded up in eastern Uganda. Maybe they wanted him to use his children as bodyguards?

Now, going into the final leg, it is speed and heat. Lots of heat. The lot of you cannot evacuate yourselves or children to America. Keep them safe, by whatever means. After the election, nobody remembers you except maybe Daily Monitor when serialising victims and the funeral companies.

Stay safe. Vote and vote right. Do not let your vote fail to count like those stubborn doves.